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And in other news … the plight of Porterville’s LGBT community

I am a serious LGBT ally. Anyone that disagrees with the notion that LGBT Americans are facing serious discrimination and deserve to be treated this way because they are “sinful” and thus second class citizens should really not be reading this blog. I may be all about the body, but the mistreatment I have faced has given me a strong capacity for empathy, and I not only can relate to this notion of “sin” I literally FEEL it along with those who suffer under this sort of stigma.

After all, I’m a glutton, didn’t you know? I’ve been feeling the burden of my deadly sin since Seven.

My hometown of Porterville, CA, has been balanced on a precipice since a Proclamation in recognition of June as LGBT Pride Month was given to a member of our LGBT community early in June. The backlash was direct and hateful and because the four men on our city council didn’t have a hand in deciding to sign it (it was signed by our Mayor, which is all that is required of a proclamation, which is a ceremonial document) they have decided to not only try to rescind it, change the rules by which proclamations are made, and replace it with a city resolution that is so wrapped up in religious-related terminology and non-specific “tolerance” that it is basically sugar-coated bigotry.

The original proclamation has been argued against by people who are tired of having to be “politically correct.” They don’t “hate” the “homosexuals” (strange how a technical term can sound so hateful when spoken by those who are filled with disdain for others) but obviously “homosexuals” don’t deserve special treatment and, because their issues are all about perverted sinful sex, these things should not be talked about in public. Sinners are sinners. The anti-political correct are tired of being told they have to be “tolerant” of these things.

Except, the proclamation, if rescinded, will more than likely be replaced with the biggest pile of politically correct BS that it its ridiculous. Political correctness at its worse renders every group so special that none can be discussed separately because everyone is a part of a big human group and any discussion of the trials and tribulations must be in terms of human.

This doesn’t celebrate diversity. It simply reduces diversity to catch phrases and jokes, instead of delving into the meat of humanity to study and appreciate, through close contemplation, the unique lessons that individuals must face and learn simply because of their differences.

Fat people should understand this. We are not given any particular “credit” for the trials we have to face. Instead, we are also told that we deserve to be hated because of our “lifestyle.”

Sadly enough, most of this city council were the same men that decided to openly support Prop. 8 in 2008. Now that it’s been struck down by the Supreme Court upholding a lower court’s decision that it is unconstitutional, one wonders how this is going to change the minds of the council.

I suspect it won’t. When confronted with the idea that you are simply wrong in the way you think about another group, most people hunker down and become belligerently intolerant. Just look at the reactions I’ve gotten from fat bigots. You call a person out for what they are, a bigot, and instead of people recognizing that yes, this is true, I am treating others disdainfully for no other reason than I THINK they are wrong for being the way they are, they recognize that YOU are attacking THEM for opinions that are biased and yet somehow MUST BE TRUE!

I don’t have faith in my city council. These men don’t represent the citizens of Porterville. Instead, they show their disdain again and again, not just with the action to rescind a ceremonial document, but the justifications they gave for this decision at the end of the last council meeting.

Apparently the pro-LGBT proc. side are being “hateful bigots” for telling these men that they are as backward and homophobic as their actions.

Who is truly the hateful bigot though? The man who is rightfully angry at being mistreated by others, or the man who must stand in defensiveness and disdain of others to protect his own biased ass?

There is no such thing as “gay marriage”… there is only marriage. There is no such thing as “gay rights” there are only “equal rights and protection for all citizens under the law.”

This is not being “politically correct”. Ensuring these civil rights are held by all is at the core of what it means to be American. Those who stand up and say that the “gays” don’t “deserve” these rights because the Bible says so are traitors to the United States, and should be held for treason.